As you probably know, players selected in the Rule 5 draft have to remain on the 25-man roster all season after being selected. If not, they are offered back to their original team at a nominal fee. Lots of teams find out that they really can’t carry their Rule 5 selectees on the roster, but do want to keep them in the organization. So, historically, a lot of Rule 5 draftees find themselves “injured” at some point early in the season and wind up on the disabled list, where they (a) don’t take up a roster spot; but (b) aren’t subject to being taken back by their old team.

I spoke with a team official last night about all of this, and he told me that the good old days of hiding guys on the DL with phantom injuries is over. MLB sent a memo out to the entire league telling them that they will be checking out Rule 5s who are disabled to make sure it’s legit. So, sadly, we may see a lot less “dead arm” and tendinitis this year.

Second fun thing: I asked the same team official about their plans for the Rule 5. Specifically, how one goes about identifying minor league Rule 5 guys who no one has ever heard of. After talking about how great their scouts are and how hard everyone works, the team official said: “we are about 90% sure that a guy we’re looking at in the late rounds actually exists.”

I think he was joking. Almost positive he was joking. OK, he may not have been joking.

Tigers first baseman/DH Miguel Cabrera is being sued by a woman from Orlando, Florida who claims that he “unilaterally” reduced the amount of his monthly child support payments, Tony Paul of The Detroit News reports. Cabrera, who has three children with his wife Rosangel, also had two children with Belkies Mariela Rodriguez in 2013 and 2015.

Cabrera pays more than $6,200 per month in child support and helped Rodriguez purchase a nearly $1 million house. Rodriguez’s attorney calls Cabrera’s monthly payments “inadequate” because her children don’t quite have the same standard of living as Cabrera’s three children with Rosangel. Cabrera’s legal team accused Rodriguez of “embarking on a mission to extort additional moneys to be used for her benefit under the guise of child support.”

Cabrera, 34, signed an eight-year, $248 million contract extension with the Tigers in March 2014, which officially began in 2016. He made $22 million in 2014-15, $28 million in 2016-17, and will earn $30 million from 2018-21 and $32 million in 2022-23.

Along with reduced child support payments, Rodriguez alleges Cabrera left her “high and dry” when it came to monthly expenses with the house he helped her purchase.

Cabrera has requested that the judge recuse herself from his case, as her husband has a title with Rodriguez’s lawyers’ law firm following a merger. He is scheduled to be questioned under oath during a videotaped deposition on Thursday in Orlando. Rodriguez is scheduled for her deposition on Friday.

Cabrera is not the only player to find himself embroiled in such a case. Bartolo Colon was also sued for back child support for a “secret family” last year.